/m/1962_mets

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This is a rather astounding achievement, possibly historic, and it leads to my prediction that this team will get no-hit before the year’s out, maybe twice. They have already flirted with no-nos — Yu Darvish took a perfect game into the ninth against them and Justin Verlander had them no-hit for six innings on Sunday. It will happen.

Big deal, try getting no-hit, perfecto'd, and being one out away from getting no-hit again but still winning 96 games and the AL East. The Astros getting no-hit a couple times would barely even be notable, they suck.

On the other side, Chris Carters has 50 strikeouts already. He has struck out 41% of the time he has been up. Rick Ankiel has struck out 53% of the time he has been up. In Rob Deer's worst season, he struck out 32% of the time. In Mark Reynolds worst season he struck out 35% of the time. Bo Jackson, Adam Dunn - 36%. Russ Branyan - 37%.

Mariners fans (all two of us!) have to find it hilarious that our team would actually move up in the standings significantly if they could just somehow eliminate all the games they had to play against Houston. The M's have lost both series they've played to them! And not by particularly close margins -- they've been blown out.

I don't think they do it. The 2003 Tigers started 1-17 and didn't even make it. And I think Jose Altuve is better than D'mitri Young. Bud Norris is better than any of the SP on that team. They'll likely win win around 50 games.

Bud Norris is good, but they need to find some starting pitchers with ERAs under 7 if they want to win 50 games. And bringing up random young motivated guys from the minors to replace the horrible veterans might just make things worse, as we learned from the Jason Davis / Jimmy Barthmaier / Yoslan Herrera era of the Pirates.

The 2003 Tigers were a pretty streaky team. They had 4 winning streaks of 3 or more, which is pretty amazing considering how bad they were.

They had three 6 game losing streaks, one 7 game losing streak, two 8 game losing streaks, two 9 game losing streaks, one 10 game losing streak and one 11 game losing streak. They also won 5 of their last 6 to end the year (against the first place Twins and 83 win Royals) and avoid the Mets record.

At the beginning of the year I looked at the pitching on the roster and thought the Astros had a legitimate chance to give up 900 runs. Then I thought, "oh that's just my usual pessimism."
They are currently on a pace to allow over a thousand runs, so maybe I was being optimistic. And the hitters are on pace for a bazillion strikeouts, too.

FWIW, Toronto hasn't been appreciably better than Houston. The team OBP is .297 and they have 8 players with at least 20 PAs and a sub-.300 OBP, led (?) by Bonifacio with a sparkling .203 in 80 PAs. Rasmus has K'd 43 times in 106 PAs. Arencibia has 42 Ks to go along with his 2 walks. Before yesterday's game he had 8 homers yet had only scored 11 runs. The Melk Man leads the team with a .252 average.

That's just the offense, they're 28th in ERA too (4.66)! The starters have a 5.37 ERA. J.A. Happ wasn't even supposed to be on the team last winter, and he's leading the rotation in ERA.

All this, and now the schedule gets tough. They have to play 52 of their next 58 games against TB, Boston, NY, SF, Atlanta, Baltimore, Detroit and Texas. They'll do well to be better than 20 games under .500 by the ASB. Oh well, there's always next year. I didn't think I'd be saying that on May 6.......

The 1962 Mets were a 50-110 team by Pythag
the 2003 Tigers were a 49-113 team by Pythag

It's really really hard to get a .250 team on true talent, I think an organization would almost literally have to be tanking it- and neither the Marlins nor the Astros are actually TRYING to lose, they just have real cheap owners...

That said, by the unscientific "eyeball" method, this is the worst team on paper I've ever seen, I think 105-110 loss type team is being generous, I think it's more like 110-115, THIS is the worst team you can field without deliberately trying to lose as many games as possible

What would happen if a team's players were hit by a comet in spring training and the result was that the organization's AAA team had to play the season in the majors? How many games would the Fresno Giants win in MLB?

For single seasons, From 1901 to 2013, Played 50% of games at C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, LF, CF, RF or DH,
(requiring SO>G and Qualified for league batting title), sorted by greatest number of players matching criteria

•Astros manager Bo Porter is building a scary lineup with Rick Ankiel, Chris Carter (whose offseason regimen included working as a forestry engineer), and Brett Wallace, and if they can get some help, they could win 69 games.

What would happen if a team's players were hit by a comet in spring training

We discussed the disaster draft a couple weeks ago and you can find the plan on Wiki. We surmised the disaster draft Astros would be better than the real Astros, at least for 2013.

(In short, every team has to make players available for draft by the disaster-stricken team. I think it was a min of 5 players lost to a disaster for it to kick in. It's an old plan, no idea if anybody has really looked at it in the FA era ... implementing it would seem problematic with 10/5, NTCs, mega-million contracts, etc.)

the only 2 position players on that team who don't suck are altuve and bradndon barnes and they refuse to play barnes because they prefer fernando suckage martinez who can't hit and can't field and can't run. and don't let me leave out ankiel who at least only makes 1 out at a time, right?

only 3 pitchers don't suck and they are bud norris and lucas harrell and wesley wright and they just barely escape the label of ucksay.

brad peacock an ace that billy beane didn't recognise - my a$$

there is no pitcher above AA who does not suck - great minor leagues my a$$

the whole thing is just bullshtt so as crane can make 30+ mill a year with the worst team ther last money can buy

and i bet they CAN reach down to grab the crown from the 62 mets and score the All Time 162 Game Worst Evah Record

It's been a rough couple years. Not only have the Mariners been awful, but they've been awful in a really boring way, and the personnel decisions have been...uninspiring. Felix is awesome, but he can only pitch so often.

That said, the M's have actually started hitting a bit, and somehow Jason Bay somehow has a 128 OPS+.

I still find the 2003 Vikings more impressive in that regard. 9-7 record, missing the playoffs by one game. Four of their losses were to the teams that earned the top 4 picks in the draft.

People always ask me why I hate pro football. I tell them that its not that I hate football, it's just that we didn't have pro football where I grew up. When they ask me where I grew up, I say "Detroit."

Hard to tell is this meant straight or sarcastic (the sarcastic read would be with reference to USS Mariner and Lookout Landing, though neither is what they once were), but I was referring to Primer. The only M's fans are, IIRC, me and vortex. There are probably a few others I'm forgetting, but it's nothing like the Mets, Sox, or suddenly vocal Nats contingent.

They've been so bad in such a boring way for so long (#49 nailed it, really) that I'm perversely determined to stick with them out of bloody-minded stubbornness. I got through the "Natinals," so I've long since learned how to shut off the part of my fandom that feels pain and instead fall back on gallows humor and the occasional Felix-inspired fangasm.

And beside, there's always the Angels. In fact, after the current series is over, we may want to rephrase the thread's lead question: "Do the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have what it takes?" Because if Houston can sweep them, they'll pass LAA in the standings!